Japan’s ruling party says it will hold a vote on Sept. 27 to choose its new leader after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s surprise announcement that he will be stepping down. The internal election must be held by the end of September, which marks the end of Kishida’s three-year term and will only include lawmakers belonging to the party and its 1.1 million dues-paying members. The winner will be the head of the Liberal Democratic Party and the country’s prime minister as the party and its smaller coalition partner control Japan’s two-chamber parliament. The announcement Tuesday comes as the governing party looks for a fresh start to regain public trust, badly hurt by the party’s extensive corruption scandal.
